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Dropout rate growing for Maclean's survey
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A growing number of Canadian universities are not participating in the coming Maclean's education issue as questions arise about the magazine's survey methodology.
The University of British Columbia, Carleton University and Ryerson University are among a handful of institutions that will not send the latest Maclean's graduate survey, which will be included in an issue in June on the undergraduate experience, to their alumni.
The move comes after the presidents of four universities -- the University of Toronto, McMaster University, the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary -- wrote in a joint letter to Maclean's in April that they are backing out because of the low response rates in past surveys the magazine has conducted.
Instead, the presidents said they prefer to rely on two other surveys, the Graduate and Professional Student Survey and the National Survey of Student Engagement, run by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research. The presidents said they find them more rigorous than the surveys conducted by Maclean's.
The influential Maclean's university ranking, a competitor to The Globe and Mail's University Report Card, has been the subject of controversy. Universities have objected to being scored and ranked.
The magazine launched its survey of recent graduates two years agoin its annual university-ranking issue. The ranking issue will continue to be published, and all universities will participate in it. The graduates survey, which looks at alumni satisfaction with their university experience, will be part of a standalone issue focused on the undergraduate experience.
Carleton University president David Atkinson called the graduates'survey "questionable" because of its small sample size. The university decided late last week that it would not participate. Mr. Atkinson,along with other Ontario university presidents, met on the issue last week, but not all universities will pull out of the graduates' survey.
In refusing to take part in the new survey, Mr. Atkinson said Carleton is also protesting against the magazine's annual university rankings. He said the rankings have not changed over the years even though universities have evolved. Still, Carleton will continue to take part in the rankings survey.
"My feeling is, why do I want to enter into a new kind of initiative with this group when I'm not even confident that the one they've been doing for 10 years really is an accurate reflection of what's going on in higher education in Canada," he said in an interview.
Many university presidents say they prefer the National Survey of Student Engagement, a prestigious U.S. survey, because it provides more detailed feedback from current students.
Ryerson president Sheldon Levy added, "I really like NSSE as a vehicle and we believe it is a significant survey instrument and one which demonstrates the level of public accountability far better than the [Maclean's] survey."
Tony Keller, managing editor of special projects at Maclean's, said the magazine will have a complete survey in its new issue even though not all universities are willing participants. To do that, the magazine may ask universities for specific data that they provide NSSE to complete its own graduate survey, he said.
"Given they've all expressed an interest in transparency, in making data public, and given that they've all said that these surveys are very much valid and valuable, I'm very hopeful that they will now decide to make this information public," Mr. Keller said.
